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Sisters provide spiritual gap year
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Canons installed at cathedral
Memorial passes grim milestone
TheAnglican THE NEWSPAPER OF THE DIOCESE OF TORONTO
A SECTION OF THE ANGLICAN JOURNAL
www.toronto.anglican.ca
MARCH 2020
Celebrating Chinese New Year ABOUT 100 people, many from the surrounding community, attended the Chinese New Year celebration at St. Philip on-the-Hill, Unionville on Jan. 26. The event included dancing, music, drumming, singing and a banquet. Almost all of the performers were professionals. Apples, which symbolize a wish for peace in Chinese culture, were blessed by Bishop Peter Fenty, the Rev. Stephen Kern and the Rev. Esther Deng. Ms. Deng says the annual event is an important outreach initiative to Mandarin-speaking people in the community. “Chinese New Year is a time for family reunions, but not every family member is here with them in Canada, so they can come celebrate with us,” she says. “It also gives them a chance to know our church.” The church has been celebrating Chinese New Year since 2016 and some people have joined the church as a result, she says. The church’s Mandarin Ministry worships on Sundays at 1 p.m.
Drumming by members of the Paradise Seniors Association in Markham.
Carlynn Reed does a dramatic reading while dancing to the poem The Creation.
Airol Yan Zhao performs Kunqu Opera, an ancient form of Chinese drama.
A young boy enjoys playing with balloons in the aisle. From left, the Rev. Stephen Kern, Bishop Peter Fenty and the Rev. Esther Deng bless apples before they are given out.
Rebecca Niu dances to ‘Yimeng Minor’.
Church to take Jesus to streets Visual arts help tell Easter story BY STUART MANN
LIGHT On The Hill, Oak Ridges (also known as St. John the Baptist, Oak Ridges) plans to make Jesus known to the surrounding community during Holy Week – literally. On Palm Sunday, church members will be taking part in a Parade of Triumph through a nearby subdivision and along Yonge Street, singing, praising the Lord, waving palm
fronds and asking neighbours to join them. At the end of the procession, an actor playing Jesus will be riding on a donkey. The parade Adam Furfaro will be one of several creative events put on by the church, which will be using drama, music, art, video and audio recordings to tell the story of Christ’s death and resurrection. About 60 people will be volunteering their time and talents during the week, April 5-12. The person behind it all is Adam Furfaro, the executive director of Light On The Hill. A former theatre director, he says drama, music and
the visual arts are an excellent way to tell the story of Jesus, especially to people who are not Christian and do not speak English as their first language. For Light On The Hill, that is a priority. Located on the northern boundary of Richmond Hill on Yonge Street, the church is close to Canada’s largest Farsi-speaking Iranian community and about 18,000 Mandarin-speaking people. There are also smaller groups from Russia, South Korea and other countries. For the past few years, the church has worked hard to connect with people in those communities, starting a Mandarin ministry, translating services into Farsi, and providing space for other groups to hold worship services and programs.
The hard work is bearing fruit. About 30 people from the Iranian community have joined the church, and a Mandarin service each Sunday at noon attracts about 35 people. The church is open seven days a week and is almost always busy. It has a total membership of about 140. “We’re starting to reflect much more what our community is,” says Mr. Furfaro, who has been serving alongside the incumbent, the Rev. Peter Blundell, for the past three years. Light On The Hill has held innovative Holy Week activities before, but this is the first time in recent memory that it will be holding a Palm Sunday procession through the neighbourhood. “We thought it was time to take Easter from inside
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the church to outside the church a bit more,” says Mr. Furfaro. Two weeks before the parade, the church will deliver postcards to residents along the route, inviting them to join the procession and attend the worship service afterwards. The cards will be printed in English, Mandarin and Farsi. Another reminder will be handed out a couple of days prior to Palm Sunday. The parade will kick off a week of imaginative events and activities, all designed to bring people closer to Jesus. Here are the highlights: • From Monday to Maundy Thursday, between 6:30-7 p.m., there will be prayer for the community at large. • Each family will be assigned a Continued on Page 7
